Dodge House: A 120-Year History
Charlie McFaul | January 27, 2022
Ruby Jane Moser
The exterior of Dodge House, located across from the Gladfelter Student Center.
Nestled in the heart of campus, Dodge House has been an integral piece of Warren Wilson College (WWC) history for over a century. Built in 1901, it was used as faculty and staff housing for most of the 20th century. Home to many families, host of dignitaries and now the office of Student Life, Dodge House has been the scene of hilarious mishaps with mice, formal dinners and pet shenanigans.
Dodge House began as a home for the farm superintendent in 1901. Rumor says it was a Sears Kit House, but Diana Sanderson, the former archivist for WWC, has found no evidence of this and says Sears did not start selling house kits until a few years later. Dodge remained housing for superintendents until 1926, then was subdivided into two apartments for faculty and staff.
Paul Bartels, professor of biology, was one of the many faculty members to have lived in Dodge over the decades.
“It wasn't ever considered a very appealing place because it’s right in the middle of campus,” Bartels said, recounting his time spent in the house.
He described the exterior of the building, the porch especially, as Mordor — in horrible repair and falling apart. However, the interior had just been renovated, so he and his family enjoyed their time there from 1986 to 1990.
At the time Bartels, his wife and his young daughter moved into the house, salaries were extremely low but included free, on-campus housing, which, for younger faculty coming in, usually meant Dodge House. Over time, there grew a sort of fraternity of people who had lived there called the Dodge House people.
Until the 1990s, the two floors of Dodge were not connected. They were separate apartments, each with exterior entrances. The current conference room was the master bedroom, the main entrance was the living room, there was a huge bedroom for Bartels’ daughter and a kitchen in the back of the apartment. Upstairs, another faculty member’s family lived with their daughter, so the kids made friends with each other. The kids happily played on the swing set and playhouse that used to be in the yard and enjoyed saying hi to passersby.
Before it became office space, Dodge House also hosted campus visitors.
“We hosted dignitaries there because it was a big open space with a nice big living room and plush carpets,” Bartels said. “So there were a couple times when we had people come over like a group of faculty because it was a central, homey kind of spot.”
One such dignitary Bartels spoke about was Parker Palmer, a famous Quaker author who wrote about the spirituality of education.
Bartels also described several shenanigans and mischief-making pets who lived with the families at Dodge House. During his time there, the family dog — aptly named Rascal — would frequently run free, hanging outside Gladfelter and sometimes running down to the farm to chase cows. At one point, the school was hosting an event in the formal gardens. They barbecued an entire pig for dinner. Rascal ran to the gardens and went straight for the pig. The Bartels got a call minutes later to come retrieve the dog and the entire pig’s head, which Rascal ran through the crowd with.
Bartels’ life at Dodge House also involved his work as a professor. One semester, he taught students how to make study skins — like those found in museum collections — using mice from the Western North Carolina Nature Center. To make sure there were always mice available for students to practice with, he kept some in his freezer at Dodge. Bartels recalled one time when a student needed a mouse to practice on, and he decided to thaw it out before the student went down to the lab.
“Note to self: don’t ever put mice in the microwave — unless you poke holes in them,” Bartels said.
The mouse exploded with a horrible smell. Fortunately, his wife was not home, so he did a major cleanup and does not think she ever found out.
Shortly after the Bartels moved off campus, Dodge was converted to office space. It was a space for the dean of the college, Academic Affairs and Admissions. According to Tacci Smith, the current interim dean of students with an office in Dodge, the exterior and conference room were renovated in 2019, replacing lead paint with a safer, fresh layer and repairing and repainting the wrap-around porch.
Dodge House has been a true home for numerous faculty and staff members over its 120-year history. It was a place where kids could grow up and pets could roam freely. This building’s rich history has been integral to the growth and development of WWC, from a home to a center meant for helping students live their best lives on campus.
